mœursvsmeurtConfusable pair

Quick tell: mœurs is a noun, meurt is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mœurs” is a noun and “meurt” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,361
“mœurs” frequency rank
#2,786
“meurt” frequency rank
13147
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mœurs meurt
Definition Habitudes, naturelles ou acquises, relatives à la pratique du bien ou du mal au sens de la morale. Troisième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif du verbe mourir.

Same sound, different letters: mœurs vs meurt

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters.

5 ch
mœurs
5 ch
meurt

Same sound, different spelling - mœurs / meurt

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: mœurs and meurt carry the same recorded pronunciation, \mœʁ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13147, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mœurs is recorded at frequency rank #10,361, classified as anoun, pronounced \mœʁ\. meurt is at rank #2,786, tagged as averb, pronounced \mœʁ\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 13147, this pair ranks #402,230 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mœurs vs meurt

Shared letters: mru. Private to "mœurs": . Private to "meurt": et.

"mœurs" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "meurt" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meurtemurt · merut · meurrt · meurtt · meutr · mmeurt · muert

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mœurs" for "meurt" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mœurs" is a noun and "meurt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "mœurs" or "meurt" show up more?
"meurt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,786 in our French list, against #10,361 for "mœurs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mœurs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "meurt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #402,230 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mœurs" and "meurt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mœurs vs Moura". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #402,230 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list